jeepin.jason

In search of a lower payment, better fuel economy, better towing capacity, and more overall utility, we traded in our 2003 GMC Denali XL on 22’s for a 2006 Dodge Ram Megacab 3500 SLT with the Cummins Turbo Diesel motor over Memorial Day Weekend. And YES, the new truck cost less than our Denali and gets better fuel mileage, especially while towing. It should anyway—we haven’t had a chance to tow with it yet but even the worst mileage we’ve heard of while towing with the Cummins is still about TWICE the 6-7mpg we got towing with the Denali. Even with barely 400 miles on the ticker, the new Ram is already getting better mileage in mixed driving than the Denali did.

The Denali’s 6.0L is a great motor, but when you combine it with AWD and the wide 305 series tires we had on there, you end up with some pretty poor mileage. My XJ on 35’s got better around town and on the highway than the Denali did. That’s just sad.

Other than that we absolutely loved the Denali, and it was a tough decision to let it go, but I think in the long-run we’ll be better served by a big ol’ honkin’ diesel pickup truck. And let me tell ya, this is one big ol’ honkin’ diesel truck!

So enough talk, here are the deets: 2006 Dodge Ram Megacab 3500 SLT, 5.9L Cummins turbo Diesel, 48RE 4-sp auto trans, light khaki metallic paint, tan cloth interior, “premium” front bench, 17” alloy wheels, CARR side steps, Mopar drop-in bedliner and soft tonneau cover, Sirius satellite radio (wish it was XM!), power sliding rear glass, and the all-important roof lights.

Well, I guess the end of another era is here… GM announced today that 2006 will be the last model year for the civillian Hummer H1, which originally debuted in 1992.

I guess I should take it as a sign that my little blog is gaining popularity, or atleast that it’s getting indexed by search engines more, because I’ve been getting flooded by spambots lately.  Thankfully WordPress has an excellent built-in spam filter that keeps most of it from ever getting shown.  What’s interesting is that all the spambots are using gmail email addresses… so I’m thinking about blacklisting all comments from a gmail address.  I know that’s a bit extreme, but looking back through all the comments that you guys have submitted so far, no one’s submitted a legit comment from a gmail address, so…

ugh, stupid spammers.

What can I say, I’m an ARB fanboy, always have been. And I’ve got a thing for recovery gear, so when ARB intro’ed their new recovery bags, I just had to have one.

The new bags come in two sizes, small (“Snatch Pack”) and large (“Winch Pack”), and they sell for around $49.95 and $59.95 respectively from 4×4RockShop.com (with free shipping!). I of course went with the large bag so I could stuff all my recovery gear in there. If you don’t already have straps and all that, Mike @ 4×4RockShop just put together a sweet ARB recovery kit with the big bag, a 30’ ARB strap, ARB tree saver, ARB snatch block, and 2 d-rings.

Both bags are made from safety-orange heavy-duty canvas with a water-resistant coating, and both feature reflective trim, a padded shoulder strap, removeable main pocket insert, fitted rubber base for durability, and big beefy buckles. You can check out all the specs on ARB’s website (pdf link).

The compact bag is just a single compartment, but the large bag features 2 big pockets, a space for a snatch block, and two small side pockets perfect for gloves and d-rings. The large bag also has a set of padded cargo flaps that fasten across the top to keep your gear nice and secure when the going gets rough. As you can see, the main pocket is big enough to fit 2 tow straps (and my winch remote) while the front pocket is perfect for a tree saver or winch rope extension. The space for the snatch block is big enough you could fit two in there… though I don’t know anyone who carries two snatch blocks…With all the pockets full, the large bag measures about 20” long, 12” high, and about 10” deep.

Like all of ARB’s products, the styling and quality are top-notch, and I have no doubt it’ll hold up to years of use.

You can check out all the pics of my ARB recovery bag on flickr.

I know this has nothing to do with Jeeps or offroading, but the news was just too good for me not to share! One of my favorite games for my PS2 is LEGO StarWars, which is based around the StarWars Prequel Trilogy, and this fall LucasArts will be releaseing LEGO StarWars II: The Original Trilogy! IGN just posted some info and a few pics, along with an interview about the game with someone from LucasArts. It sounds like they’ve made some really cool improvements over the original game, including character customization where you can mix and match pieces from different characters to create completely new characters (Chew Vader anyone?), more freedom in vehicle-based levels, and all-new character-specific melee attacks such as Chewbacca riping the LEGO arms off his opponents! Whoo-hoo! Check out the complete interview and all 5 screen shots here.

Since I had the whole week off from work for Christmas, I took the opportunity to replace the radiator in our TJ with a nice new 3-core model from CSF. The install went smoothly, and as with most things, it was easier to do on a TJ than it was on my XJ. You can check out my install photo album here, and read my forum write-up here.

J Rations, a new multimedia publication for Jeep enthusiasts, is finally launching! Started by the same people that originally brought us Jp Magazine, J Rations will combining print, inter-active CD-ROM, and exclusive internet content to give us what should be a very cool new type of publication. I’ve actually known about J Rations for quite some time now and have already ordered a copy of their debut edition, called Standard Issue #1. Their website is excellent, so I’m pretty excited that the magazine and CD-ROM are finally shipping out.

Paying homage Jeep’s army heritage, J Rations incorporates a lot of military-themed terms, from their very name, to sections of their site dubbed Base PX (their online store for gear) and J Company (a section with readers’ rigs, events calendar, and an extensive list of Jeep and 4×4 clubs).

Check out the offical press release on Jeepin.com, and of course be sure to check out the J Ration website to see what it’s all about and order your copy of Standard Issue #1 too.

I think the folks at J Rations have the potential to have something great going, and I really hope they succeed at it.

TheCarConnection.com/ (scroll down a bit to find it)

From the picture in the link above, you can obviously see the long front control arms, which should eliminate any lingering doubt that the ‘07 model will have a solid front axle. The muffler has indeed be relocated to where the TJ’s gas tank sits, so you can expect muffler skids to be one of the first products on the market for the new models. The door handles are clearly revised, though it appears that they use a small pushbutton, ala the XJ’s door handles, instead of an actual pull-handle like the Grand Cherokee has (which is what I thought it would have). Unlike the Rescue concept and the Liberty, the rear flares are not split with the front half mounted to the door—which makes sense considering that all four doors are removeable. There’s some type of hinge looking assembly on the windshield, indicating that it will still be foldable (though I’ve heard conflicting info on just how exactly this will work). The overall appearance of the front is very much like the Gladiator concept, even down to the small round side marker light on the fender/flare.

Oh yeah, the model shown is right-hand drive, so it’s probably a euro-spec model. That would (hopefully) explain the red lens (probably a UK-spec rear fog light) on the rear bumper as well as the end caps on the front bumper extending up to meet the flares.

Admittedly I’ve slacked off on regularly checking our TJ’s cooling system this past year. The Jeep is five and a half years old now, but it doesn’t even have 30k on the ticker yet, so I really hadn’t given the radiator much thought… yet.

This morning I noticed an odd small puddle of brownish water on the garage floor under the front of the TJ. It was dripping from the bottom passenger side of the fan shroud. I popped the hood and didn’t see any noticeable problems, but I didn’t have time to really check around since I had to leave for work.

So I went to look at it again tonight and the puddle had gotten a bit bigger. I checked around under the hood a bit closer and noticed some rusty looking gunk around the edge of the top cap on the radiator… I pull the cap off the filler neck and instantly smell… rust. The whole inside of the radiator is fully of rusty water. And the fluid level is low too (no doubt due to the leaking).

Guess I know what my next project on the TJ is going to be… A CSF radiator.

So I’m sitting here burning through my shows on our Directv TiVo and episode 1 of Jeep’s Meet the Mudds that I blogged about before showed up in the Showcases list. The total clip was about 3 minutes long and features a minute-long promo for the new Commander following the Mudds episode.

The promo shows a pair of Commanders exploring the back country of what has to be Colorado along with a narrator’s voice bestowing the virtues of the new vehicle. Unfortunately at one point it shows the dynamic duo crossing a highcountry field off an established 2-track trail that’s clearly visible in the clip. Way to TreadLightly guys…

On the highway anyway… we’re still in the break-in process on the new 4.88’s and rear ARB that I installed in our TJ back in August, so we haven’t had it offroad yet, but on the street the new gears are great! Take-offs from a dead stop are much easier and quicker, and 5th gear is useful again! On the highway in 5th the TJ will easily ramp up to 80mph, though it seems to top out not long after that—not that cruising at 80+ mph in a SWB TJ with 35” tires and a total of 6.5” of lift is really the safest thing to be doing though… At around 75mph in 5th gear the engine is spinning at a comfortable 2500 rpms. The only engine mods we’ve got on the TJ are a Magnaflow exhaust (a result of installing our long-arm kit) and a BruteForce intake kit from AEM.

That’s right folks, The Mudds, Jeep’s goofy new marketing campaign for the Commander, have arrived. It is indeed live-action video, and it’s a bit cheesier than I’d expected—while their shiney new Commander is spotless (all the better to see the vehicle), the Mudds themselves are, well, apparently perpetually covered in… mud.

The somewhat ironic part is that Jeep makes such a big deal about the Commander being a 7-seat vehicle, but the Mudds are just a family of five, and as you can see all three kids are sitting in the 2nd row, at least in the first introductory video that’s now available on the website. Who knows, maybe the pick up a hitch-hiker along their travels? A very small, hitch-hiker?... Cheesy as it may be, I’m probably still going to watch every episode, just to see what they do.